Delaware supports Obama-Biden which makes Ted Kaufman a good fit as Senator

In yesterday's News-Journal several paragraphs into a story about US Representative Mike Castle's voting record, I noticed a number that made me curious. I think Kaufman's near 100% support of President Obama's proposals confirms that Ted Kaufman, whose appointment in 2009 to fill the US Senate seat vacated by newly elected Vice-President Joseph Biden generated some publicity over a process he had no control over, has turned out to represent the views of Delawareans well. I could not find polls on line that specifically state Obama's current approval in Delaware,but I think some realistic assumptions can be made from looking at national polls and recent election results.

From yesterday's News-Journal:
Castle opposed the majority of his party (Republican) more often than his Delaware counterparts in the Senate.
Democratic Sen. Tom Carper voted with the majority of his party 93 percent of the time and with the president's position 97 percent of the time, according to the CQ study. Kaufman voted with most other Democrats 98 percent of the time and with the president's position 98.7 percent of the time.
Kaufman's single vote against Obama's position came in favor of a measure barring the use of federal funds to move detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.


http://www.delawareonline.com/article/201001160345/NEWS02/1160342


In 2008 Delaware supported the Obama-Biden national ticket with 61.9% of the vote and Joe Biden's re-election bid for U S Senate with 64.7% of the vote.

http://elections.delaware.gov/archive/elect08/elect08_general_election/html/elect08_gen_office.shtml


Nationally , Obama's approval rating has decreased from 69% in Feb 2009 to about 50% in Dec2009, according to Gallop Polls:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx


Here is a link to RealClear Politics with information from other polling organizations that find Obama's current approval within a few points of a 50% as well:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html


NPR reports that nationally Obama got 52.7% of the vote to McCain's 45.9% of the vote in the 2008 presidential election.

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/election2008/2008-election-map.html

This would seem to indicate that nationally Obama went from 52.7% of the actual votes cast to 50% approval rating, a decrease of between 2-3% in public support.
Even if Delaware's dip in support was double the national average (which is unlikely in a state with 97,000 more Democrats than Republicans in which the Democrats control of both houses of the state legislature and hold 7 of 9 statewide elected offices), Obama would still retain 55.9% support of Delawareans (61.9-6=55.9).

It is highly possible Obama's support in Delaware may be even higher than the national average.I think many Delawareans of all political persuasions do not want to see failure in an administration which includes the first vice-president from Delaware.

Whatever the exact number is for Delaware, I am pretty sure it would be over 50 % which would mean Ted Kaufman's support for the Obama agenda places his actions well within the parameters of the wishes of the majority of the Delawareans he serves.

Voter registration figures are as of 1-1-2010

http://elections.delaware.gov/reports/e70r2601sd.shtml